Arctic Sea Ice Extent

Arctic Sea Ice extent continues to be a problem. This year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, ARctic Sea ice reached its lowest extent this year on September 17th, which is about the sixth lowest extent on record, following a multi-year trend of decline. There is variation from year to year. This year's minimum was almost exactly the same as last years. With the exception of 2001, minimum extent has been below the climatalogical average every year since 1998.

Dana Nuccitelli has a post on this with excellent discussion and some nice graphics, and he has also produced a new version of the animated "How 'Skeptics' View Arctic Sea Ice Decline" graphic, which I reproduce here:

ArcticEscalator500

More like this

Despite the familiarity of this headline, it actually only became news today (and is still a little uncertain). The National Snow and Ice Data Centre is today anouncing the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has reached its minimum extent for this year. Some notable facts from the article: this is the…
Every year the sea ice that covers the northern part of the Earth expands and contracts though the winter and the summer. The minimum extent of the sea ice is usually reached some time in September, after which it starts to reform. Human caused greenhouse gas pollution has increased the surface…
There has been lots of discussion of this year's arctic sea ice extent. Last year was a shocking 23% lower record breaker. That's 23% lower than the previous record, for which one had to go all the way back to....2005! That's not 23% below the 1979-2001 average, but 23% below the lowest…
This is the headline on a press release from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. They are one of the goto sources for data about sea ice, either arctic or antarctic. The final extent of arctic sea ice melting this year, as in any other single…

Arctic sea ice extent (& volume) is the metaphorical canary telling us we have a problem here - and we sure do. Just look at this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgiMBxaL19M

'Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Volumes 1979-2012'youtube clip by Andy Lee Robinson.

See also :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MozcU7woNNQ

The more things change ..

***

“I like ice also as an indicator of climate change for its political neutrality.
Ice asks no questions, presents no arguments, reads no newspapers, listens to no debates. It is not burdened by ideology and carries no political baggage as it crosses the threshold from solid to liquid. It just melts.”

-Dr Henry Pollack, geophysicist, University of Michigan.

Source : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-wbzK4v7GsM

'Watts Up with Sea Ice?' Youtube video by Greenman3610 esp. 1 minute 14 secs to 1 minute 51 seconds.

By Astrostevo (not verified) on 25 Oct 2014 #permalink

PS. Just one more link if I may :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRc_9nNTZg0

Especially the 2 minute 20 secs mark. Freeze the clip at the 2 minute 45 seconds instant. The red is the observed data.

Yes it is a few years out of date now -but things have not got better.

Think about the implications.

Ironically, they are chilling.

By Astrostevo (not verified) on 25 Oct 2014 #permalink